France24

A Romanian Gypsy leader compared French President Nicolas Sarkozy to Romania’s pro-Nazi wartime leader Marshal Ion Antonescu on Wednesday following the forced deportation of hundreds of Roma, or Gypsies, from France in recent weeks.

More than 500 systematic rapes were committed in Congo since late July, the UN revealed on Tuesday, as a senior official admitted that the UN's peacekeeping force in the country, MONUSCO, had failed to protect civilians from the violence.

French Muslims will join co-religionists in Saudi Arabia and Egypt in celebrating Eid al-Fitr on Friday, marking the end of the holy month of Ramadan. Eid, which depends on the sighting of the new moon, can be observed on different days.

British oil giant BP blamed "multiple companies and work teams" for the massive Gulf of Mexico spill that fouled waters and shorelines for months in an internal report released on Wednesday.

US President Barack Obama warned that Bush-era tax cuts for the rich could not be extended in a major economic policy speech in Cleveland, Ohio, on Wednesday, instead pledging "to give tax cuts to every American making 250,000 dollars or less".

Google has unveiled a set of enhancements to its Internet search engine that display results even as users type their queries, promising to speed up the time it takes to find information online and to generate more searches on the website.

French unions have called for a further day of strikes on Sept. 23 after President Nicolas Sarkozy said Tuesday's mass protests would not derail plans to raise the retirement age from 60 to 62.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy has rejected calls to back down on raising the retirement age from 60 to 62 years after a day of nationwide strikes to protest his government's plan to overhaul pensions.

Suspected members of a Nigerian Islamic sect known as Boko Haram have attacked a prison and freed more than 700 inmates, security officials said Wednesday. The sect, described as the Nigerian Taliban, launched an uprising against the state last year.

A grassroots movement in Gainesville, Florida, is gathering pace against a local pastor’s plan to burn copies of the Koran on the anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks in New York and Washington.

Pakistani police have detained three people suspected of involvement in the plot to plant a bomb on May 1 in New York's Times Square. The three were arrested in the Pakistani capital of Islamabad two weeks ago and interrogated for several days.

The father of British Prime Minister David Cameron (centre) died on Wednesday after suffering a stroke while holidaying in France. The British premier arrived at his bedside Wednesday in Toulon, where Ian Cameron, 77, was receiving treatment.

Los Angeles police arrested 22 protesters and fired rubber bullets into the crowd during a second night of rioting on Tuesday that followed the fatal police shooting of a Guatemalan immigrant in a Sunday confrontation with police officers.

Sri Lanka's parliament voted Wednesday to revoke the two-term limit on the presidency, sparking protests in the capital, Colombo. Some critics say the move could allow President Mahinda Rajapaksa to consolidate his power under a family dynasty.

It's not just with the economic forum in Krynica that Poland is trying to take a lead in Central European finance. Warsaw's stock exchange has lofty ambitions. And the relative health of the Polish economy - the only one in Europe not to suffer a recession - has allowed Warsaw to emerge from the crisis as market leader. Warsaw's burgeoning financial centre is turning the Polish capital into a London of the east, or a mini-Manhattan...

A witness at the opening of the trial of a powerful family accused of taking part in the Philippines’s worst-ever political massacre has told the court that the Ampatuan clan planned and carried out the killings of 57 people.

In Saudi Arabia, many Asian and African maids work and live in conditions akin to slavery. A young Kenyan woman, who has fled her Saudi employers and is now in hiding, told us her story.

Despite reports that illegal entries into the United States are plummeting, the Obama administration deported more immigrants in 2009 than in any other year in history.

In a little over two years, Italian police have seized around 15 billion euros worth of goods from the mafia, part of a crackdown which has also seen the arrests of 6,500 mobsters, including 20 of the group's most dangerous members. From land to hard cash, the impressive haul has in some way gone towards limiting the mafia's activities. But redistributing the wealth back to the communities who've suffered the most at the hands of the group is a different matter.

Spaniard Rafael Nadal moved closer to wining a career Grand Slam after an impressive victory against compatriot Feliciano Lopez 6-3, 6-4, 6-4 in the fourth round at Flushing Meadows on Wednesday.